Using My Powers for Good: How a Grad School Dropout Built a Career in Education, Business, and Finance

Using My Powers for Good: How a Grad School Dropout Built a Career in Education, Business, and Finance

My Path Shifted but My Purpose Didn’t !

When I tell people I’m a graduate school dropout, they look at me like the story ends there. Like the credits roll. Like the book closes. But baby, the book didn’t close — the chapter just changed fonts.

Even though I didn’t finish my master’s program (yet), here’s the part I always want people to understand: I never stopped using my powers for good.

Let me take you back real quick.
2015 — I had just graduated high school, bright-eyed, overly ambitious, and determined to shake the table. That’s when I started my foundation: Keen Intelligent Minds College Prep. I was giving out scholarships, helping students transition from high school to college, and supporting kids who didn’t always have someone to guide them. At 18, I was already doing higher education work without a degree in sight.

Fast forward.
I earn my bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing & Digital Advertising. I spend YEARS inside entrepreneurship, branding, and strategy. I begin designing for businesses, creating marketing systems, launching projects, and helping people turn ideas into profit. And even after dropping out of my graduate program in college student personnel, I never dropped the passion.

In 2024, I even tried my hand at college prep digital products. The 

The Graduation Game Plan mini (attached) is a dream that will be revisited in 2026.

The calling didn’t leave.

Today, life did a funny little full-circle moment.
Now, I’m in California Communities, working directly with the Compton Girls Club & KIPP Schools teaching workshops on:

  • Emotional intelligence

  • College preparedness

  • Entrepreneurship

  • Confidence and self-narrative

And the wild part is… I’m doing all the things I thought I needed a degree to do.

I’m using the same background — the education, the business training, the one beautiful semester of graduate studies — and it’s coming together in a way that makes sense now. My skills didn’t disappear because I opted out of a program. If anything, they expanded.

And then another shift happened.

After years of design work, running my business, and serving students, I realized something:
People don’t just need education or branding or guidance. They need financial stability. They need protection. They need options.

I’ve met entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas but no financial cushion.
Students with dreams but no support system.
Families trying to build something real but not knowing where to start.

So now, at almost 30 years old, I’m stepping into my next evolution:

Finance. Wealth. Future Planning.

smaller plus sized black woman with afro in a Kelly green blazer sitting down at a table with a black family discussing financial planning with a smile

Not in a scammy “get rich quick” way — but in a “let me teach you what nobody taught us” way.

In 2026, I’ll be licensed to sell insurance and financial securities.
And I’m merging ALL of my worlds:

  • The educator in me

  • The designer in me

  • The strategist in me

  • The community builder in me

This isn’t a pivot.
This isn’t a rebrand.
This is the integration of every version of Kimberly — the business owner, scholar, creator, mentor, and future financial professional.

Because the mission stayed the same:
Help people build better lives — creatively, educationally, emotionally, and financially.

I may not be a chancellor.
I may not be Dr. Kimberly Boyd… yet.

But I’m definitely still in the business of changing futures.
Welcome back to Kim’s Wealth Circle — where the journey is personal, the lessons are real, and the evolution is never-ending.

Yours in the Financial Fight,

Kimmy Bee

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  • nontraditional career path

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